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Recommendations based on Tales of Pirx the Pilotby Stanisław Lem
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The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy
by Stanisław Lem
A satirical sci-fi journey of a man struggling to make sense of a world of surrealism and absurdity.
Ijon Tichy is sent to the Eighth World Futurological Congress in Costa Rica , by professor Tarantoga . The conference is set to focus on the world's overpopulation crisis and ways of dealing with it. ... (Wikipedia)
Solaris
by Stanisław Lem
A psychological exploration of a distant planet, uncovering the truth behind its strange and mysterious phenomena.
Solaris chronicles the ultimate futility of attempted communications with the extraterrestrial life inhabiting a distant alien planet named Solaris. The planet is almost completely covered with an ... (Wikipedia)
Hard to Be a God
by Arkady Strugatsky
A group of scientists are sent to a planet stuck in the medieval era to observe and help, but find themselves struggling to maintain their humanity.
The prologue shows a scene from Anton's childhood, in which he goes on an adventure with his friends Pashka (Paul) and Anka (Anna) and plays a game based on melodramatic recreations of events on the ... (Wikipedia)
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.
The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)
Roadside Picnic
by Arkady Strugatsky
Two scientists explore a mysterious, abandoned alien landscape to uncover secrets.
The novel is set in a post-visitation world where there are now six zones known on Earth that are full of unexplained phenomena and where strange happenings have briefly occurred, assumed to have ... (Wikipedia)
The Cyberiad
by Stanisław Lem
A series of comic science fiction stories, exploring the adventures of two robotic inventors.
A brilliantly funny collection of stories for the next age, from the celebrated author of Solaris . Ranging from the prophetic to the surreal, these stories demonstrate Stanislaw Lem's vast talent ... (Goodreads)
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
A hacker's quest in a futuristic America dealing with a mysterious computer virus.
Hiro Protagonist is a hacker and pizza delivery driver for the Mafia. He meets Y.T. (short for Yours Truly), a young skateboard Kourier ( courier ) who refers to herself in the third person , during ... (Wikipedia)
The Good Soldier Švejk
by Jaroslav Hašek
A Czech soldier's satirical adventures during WWI, highlighting the absurdity of war.
The story begins in Prague with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitates World War I . Švejk displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Austrian Emperor in battle that no ... (Wikipedia)
The Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury
Human colonists struggle for survival on Mars, facing the challenges of a new world.
The strange and wonderful tale of man’s experiences on Mars, filled with intense images and astonishing visions. Now part of the Voyager Classics collection. The Martian Chronicles tells the story of ... (Goodreads)
Neuromancer
by William Gibson
A hacker's journey through a dystopian cyberpunk world, searching for a way to survive.
Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City , Japan. Once a talented computer hacker , Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment for his theft, ... (Wikipedia)
Sword of Destiny
by Andrzej Sapkowski
Epic fantasy adventure of a witcher on a quest to protect the world from dark forces.
The anthology consists of several stories, loosely linked in a chronology. The short stories in this collection take place before the events of the novels and introduce characters that become major ... (Wikipedia)
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke
An interstellar journey of exploration, confronting humanity's place in the universe.
A mysterious alien civilization uses a tool with the appearance of a large crystalline monolith to investigate worlds across the galaxy and, if possible, to encourage the development of intelligent ... (Wikipedia)
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
by Robert A. Heinlein
Revolutionary group fight for freedom from an oppressive lunar colony.
In 2075, the Moon (Luna) is used as a penal colony by Earth's government, with three million inhabitants (called "Loonies") living in underground cities. Most Loonies are criminals, political exiles, ... (Wikipedia)
Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
A thrilling journey through the past and present, combining tech, history and adventure.
The action takes place in two periods—World War II and the late 1990s, during the Internet boom and Asian financial crisis . In 1942, Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse, a young United States Navy code ... (Wikipedia)
The Call of Cthulhu
by H.P. Lovecraft
A tale of horror and mystery, as a man investigates an ancient cult's dark secrets.
The story's narrator, Francis Wayland Thurston, recounts his discovery of various notes left behind by his great uncle, George Gammell Angell, a prominent professor of Semitic languages at Brown ... (Wikipedia)
Metro 2033
by Dmitry Glukhovsky
Post-apocalyptic novel set in a remote subway station, as survivors battle mutants and humans for survival.
The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. The half-destroyed cities have become uninhabitable through radiation. Beyond their boundaries, they say, lie ... (Goodreads)
The Twelve Chairs
by Ilya Ilf
A comedic tale of two men's quest for hidden jewels in a chair with a secret compartment.
In the Soviet Union in 1927, a former Marshal of Nobility , Ippolit Matveyevich "Kisa" Vorobyaninov, works as the registrar of marriages and deaths in a sleepy provincial town. His mother-in-law ... (Wikipedia)
Hyperion
by Dan Simmons
Epic science-fiction story of a journey to the distant planet Hyperion.
In the 29th century, the Hegemony of Man comprises hundreds of planets connected by farcaster portals. The Hegemony maintains an uneasy alliance with the TechnoCore , a civilisation of AIs . Modified ... (Wikipedia)
Moon Palace
by Paul Auster
A young man's journey of self-exploration, uncovering secrets of his mysterious past.
Marco Stanley Fogg is an orphan, a child of the sixties, a quester tirelessly seeking the key to his past, the answers to the ultimate riddle of his fate. As Marco sets out on a journey from the ... (Goodreads)
At the Mountains of Madness
by H.P. Lovecraft
A scientific expedition to Antarctica uncovers secrets of an ancient civilization.
The story is recalled in a first-person perspective by the geologist William Dyer, a professor at Arkham 's Miskatonic University , in the hope to prevent an important and much publicized scientific ... (Wikipedia)
The Tower of the Swallow
by Andrzej Sapkowski
A powerful sorceress and her companions battle dangerous forces to protect their kingdom.
Vysogota, an elderly philosopher living alone in the Pereplut swamp, comes upon an injured Ciri near his retreat and takes her in, caring for her until she is ready to continue her journey. During ... (Wikipedia)
The Color of Magic
by Terry Pratchett
A comedic fantasy adventure full of humor, absurdities, and unexpected turns.
The story takes place on the Discworld, a planet-sized flat disc carried through space on the backs of four gargantuan elephants – Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon and Jerakeen – who themselves stand on ... (Wikipedia)
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A satirical exploration of human folly, exposing the dangers of unchecked science and technology.
Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ... Dr Felix Hoenikker, ... (Goodreads)
The Light Fantastic
by Terry Pratchett
An adventure to save the world from a mysterious, magical force threatening to destroy it.
The book begins shortly after the ending of, The Colour of Magic, , with wizard Rincewind , Twoflower and the Luggage falling from the Discworld. They are saved when the Octavo , the most powerful ... (Wikipedia)
Halting State
by Charles Stross
A police officer investigates a daring heist in a virtual world, uncovering a criminal conspiracy.
The plot opens with a faux email addressed to Nigel MacDonald, listing a job offer. It is later learned that this email is for a work-at-home programmer position at Hayek Associates PLC. It is then ... (Wikipedia)
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy
Epic tale of war, peace, and love, focusing on the lives of five aristocratic families.
The novel begins in July 1805 in Saint Petersburg , at a soirée given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer—the maid of honour and confidante to the dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna . Many of the main characters ... (Wikipedia)
The First Men in the Moon
by H.G. Wells
Two men journey to the moon and discover a subterranean world inhabited by insect-like creatures.
The narrator is a London businessman named Bedford who withdraws to the countryside to write a play, by which he hopes to alleviate his financial problems. Bedford rents a small countryside house in ... (Wikipedia)
The Time Machine
by H.G. Wells
A scientist travels through time, discovering the future of mankind.
The book's protagonist is a Victorian English scientist and gentleman inventor living in Richmond , Surrey , identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller . Similarly, with but one exception ... (Wikipedia)
Storm Front
by Jim Butcher
A wizard detective investigates a mysterious magical murder in modern Chicago.
Dresden is hired by a Monica Sells to find her husband Victor Sells, an amateur magician who has been acting oddly. Later that day, he gets a call from Lieutenant Karrin Murphy, director of the ... (Wikipedia)
The Last Wish
by Andrzej Sapkowski
A dark fantasy adventure, filled with monsters, magic, and morality.
The King of Temeria, Foltest, has offered a reward to anyone who can lift the curse on his daughter, Adda (the result of an incestuous union with his late sister, also named Adda), who was born as a ... (Wikipedia)
